


Take Care

by magebird



Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: F/M, Flirting, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-02
Updated: 2013-01-02
Packaged: 2017-11-23 10:34:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/621163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magebird/pseuds/magebird
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>More friendship/flirting than actual romance. Ariadne wants to know more about Arthur and Cobb's background.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Take Care

**Author's Note:**

> **Prompt:** [More friendship/flirting than actual romance. Ariadne wants to know more about Arthur and Cobb's background. ](http://community.livejournal.com/inception_kink/4946.html?thread=6116946#t6116946)

It was early in the afternoon, and the university campus was bustling. Students hurried up and down the halls, or gathered in little knots to talk with their professors or each other. It seemed like every square inch of the space was alive with the chatter of something happening.

Arthur liked the activity. It was something no dream could truly replicate. The chaotic crowd and random shouts of friends calling across the hall were as grounding as any totem, and he leaned against the wall watching the people pass with a slight smile. It brought back memories of his own time as a student. He’d met Mal here, when he was one of her father’s students, and she’d introduced him to Dom and to sharing dreams… That had been before limbo, and before everything change irrevocably, of course. Still, it was nice to be back. It reminded him of a time when things were less complicated.

He saw Ariadne before she spotted him, and straightened, reaching up on automatic to readjust his tie automatically. She was dressed comfortably in her usual mismatched layers, with a light jacket draped over her arm and a messenger bag bouncing on her hip. It took her a second to notice him standing there, and he saw her face light up.

“Arthur! Hi!” She dashed forward in a little skip and threw her arms around him in an exuberant hug. He returned the gesture readily, with as much affection if not as much enthusiasm. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to see how you were doing,” Arthur said, extracting himself from the hug. “We missed you.”

“You’re trying to lure me back into a life of crime, aren’t you?” Ariadne said accusingly, but she was still smiling widely. 

“Guilty.” Arthur allowed Ariadne to loop her arm through his and pull him along—Towards the library, he realized as they started up a familiar staircase, “We can’t seem to find an architect anywhere near as talented as you.”

“Glad to know you love me for my personality,” Ariadne said with a little snort of laughter. She looked up at Arthur’s face, and he saw that she looked very happy to see him. “You can tell Cobb I’ll consider a job _after_ I finish this degree.”

They hadn’t seen each other since the Fischer job, though they’d spoken on the phone many times, and Arthur found himself enjoying the warm weight of her on his arm as she steered him down towards a cluster of chairs and tables at one end of the library. He was a little disappointed when she released him to fling herself down into one of the cozy looking armchairs, drawing her legs up under her so she was curled comfortably on the seat. Arthur took the place across from her.

“He’ll be very disappointed. The man we’re using now is completely useless.”

Ariadne rolled her eyes, “There are other architects, you know. You could always just hire someone else.”

“We are forever ruined after experiencing your brilliance.” Arthur shrugged and leaned back in his chair. It was lumpy, as if it had suffered the abuse of a thousand university students over the years, but relatively comfortable.

“You flatter me.” Ariadne crossed her legs, “How’s your job going now? Besides the shitty architect, I mean.”

Arthur paused, wondering how honest he wanted to be, then said, “It’s going fine, I suppose. Cobb is… Well, the Fischer job was hard on him, and he’s still having trouble adjusting to life with his children.”

“I thought that was all he really wanted,” Ariadne said, frowning, and Arthur sighed.

“Yes, of course, but he had to lose Mal all over again, and that wasn’t easy,” Arthur explained, and when Ariadne made a face he realized he sound patronizing and quickly continued, “But it’s good for the people working with him, obviously. Much safer.”

“No kidding!” Ariadne laughed, “No more surprise trains.”

“Or sudden deaths,” Arthur said, allowing a smile to creep onto his face. Ariadne’s expression changed, though, and was suddenly frowning.

"So Mal killed you in the dream, huh?" she asked, and Arthur’s smile faded.

“Yes…?” He shifted a little in his seat, “It happens. I learned to expect it, whenever she was around. I eventually started to just leave, whenever I saw her. I mean—That wasn’t _really_ Mal.”

Ariadne was watching him in silence, her face all but blank, and he wondered how they’d suddenly stumbled onto the topic. He crossed his arms.

“How many times did she kill you?” Ariadne asked.

“Why do you want to know?”

“I just do, okay?” Ariandne set her jaw stubbornly.

Arthur stared at her for a second. He had no idea why she could possibly want to know about something like that. He died in dreams all the time—Hell, it was part of the job description. Why would it matter if it was one projection or another that ended up killing him?

Only, it wasn’t just a projection. Mal, Dom’s projection of Mal, had been more than just another part of his subconscious, even if she hadn’t been the real Mal. Arthur wondered again what had happened when Ariadne and Dom had been in limbo. He’d never asked Dom, but Ariadne’s question made him wonder.

“Nine,” he said. What could it hurt? “Nine times that I know of.”

“That you know of?” she repeated, raising an eyebrow and folding her hands in her lap, “What do you mean?”

Arthur sighed, “There’s nine times I was certain it was her—The projection. Another three might have been her too, but I can’t be sure.”

Ariadne sat forward in her chair, and Arthur saw an expression of concern flit across her face, “At least you woke up right away.”

“No,” Arthur said, and saw her frown, “There’s nine times she killed me, and then four times she just tortured me.” Ariadne had the decency to go a little pale, but Arthur continued, “The first time I made the kick, but I guess she learned from that because the next three times Dom had to come and kill me himself.”

“…Shit, Arthur, I…” Ariadne trailed off, looking down at the carpet.

“It wasn’t Mal,” Arthur said firmly, “It was Dom’s guilt and anger and it wasn’t something that could be controlled. There’s no one to blame. And it wasn’t all that bad.”

“You got tortured and murdered, how is that not all that bad?” Ariadne demanded, looking up at him. He realized she was still pale, and reached out to touch her hand where it rested on her knee.

“That’s part of my job. I swear, I’m not torn up about it,” he said firmly. He spoke with more confidence than he really felt, but Ariadne seemed somewhat soothed and leaned back a little.

“But Mal was your friend, wasn’t she?” Ariadne spoke quietly, and Arthur thought she sounded sad.

“That wasn’t _Mal_. It wasn’t even a person,” he insisted, because to think otherwise would be too painful. He swallowed, “Look, I didn’t come here to talk about that. How are you? How are your studies going?”

Ariadne at first seemed reluctant to move on, but he pried her out with a few careful questions, and after a couple of minutes she seemed to have forgotten her melancholy and was telling him an animated story about the last all-nighter she and her fellow students had pulled. It was comfortable to sit and listen to her voice. It reminded him of the too few weeks they’d had before the Fischer job, back when the whole team was together. 

He wondered, though, where the sudden interest in Mal had come from. He knew only a little about what had gone on between her and Dom in limbo. Something had happened that tipped Ariadne off to how bad things were getting, but he didn’t know what. He knew that Dom had come back from his second time in limbo no longer haunted… And somehow Ariadne had been involved.

“…And then Kris turned around and the professor was standing _right there_.” Ariadne finished with a flourish, and Arthur smiled.

“It reminds me of when I was a student here,” he said, almost wistful, glancing out the nearby window towards the courtyard.

“You went here?” Ariadne said, a shocked expression coming on to her face.

“Yes,” Arthur shrugged, “I thought you knew.”

“I knew that _Cobb_ did, but I didn’t know you did, too—Is this where you met him?” The eager expression on Ariadne’s face was endearing, and Arthur hid a small smile. Ariadne always got annoyed when he called her cute.

“More or less—Mal introduced us. I was a student in one of Miles’ classes,” he said, “He basically did the same thing to me that he did to you.”

Ariadne sat forward in her chair and said in a stunned tone, “You studied architecture.”

“No,” Arthur said, raising a hand to forestall her, “No, I studied design. It was an elective class.” He smiled wanly, “I have to admit I got distracted, never finished my masters.”

“Because of the dreaming?”

“Yes, more or less. I’m glad to see you’re more determined than I was,” Arthur said. He didn’t add that he’d dropped everything as soon as Dom had called from Rio de Janeiro, that his grades had been in the toilet anyway since Mal’s death

“You could have come back to school,” Ariadne pointed out, “You still could.”

“There’s no degree in extraction.” Arthur raised his eyebrow. “Or were you just hoping I’d let you copy my homework?”

“Don’t be stupid,” Ariadne said, “As if a design major could teach _me_ anything.”

“Snob,” Arthur teased genially, then glanced at his watch. “Have you had lunch yet?”

“No,” Ariadne said, “But I’m broke. Are you buying?”

“Don’t tell me you managed to spend everything from the Fischer job already. I didn’t think that was possible.” Arthur stood up and offered her a hand, which she took to pull herself up onto her feet.

“I put most of it away for later and I'm living on a very strict budget. I didn’t want to suddenly be rolling in cash when all my friends were still starving students.” Ariadne reached out to smooth her fingers down his tie, “I can see where your money’s going.”

“I also have a new apartment in Chicago,” Arthur said, offering her his arm again. They started off towards the door to the library, “You’d like it. Maybe you should come and visit some time.”

“You _wish._ ” Ariadne was laughing, and Arthur leaned down a little to breath in the scent of her hair. Warm and sweet, like shampoo. He felt her sigh, “I’m too busy for distractions.”

“The offer stands.” Arthur held open the door to the library for her and let her step outside onto the landing before him. “As does the offer of employment, as soon as you’re done here.”

“You miss me.” She paused, looking up at him with a smile.

Arthur shrugged. “Maybe a little bit.”

\-----

It was almost five before Ariadne said that she had to get to an evening class and Arthur walked her out of the café to the curb. They were only a few blocks from the university, and Ariadne turned down Arthur’s offer to give her a ride, insisting that the walk would be nice.

She paused before crossing the street, turning back towards Arthur with her hands in her pockets, rocking back on her heels.

“Give my best to Cobb,” she said, crossing her arms.

“I will.” Arthur shrugged off his coat and took a step forward to swing it around her shoulders. It wasn’t a cold night, and she gave him a look. “Don’t get any ideas. I’m only lending you this as an excuse to see you again soon.”

“You are nothing if not smooth, Arthur.” Ariadne reached up to tug the jacket more closely around her body. “Soon, then?”

“Definitely,” Arthur said, and leaned down to press his lips to her cheek.

“Don’t die before I see you again,” Ariadne ordered, reaching up to wrap her arms around his neck and pull him down into a hug, “Take care of yourself.”

“You too.”

“And don’t let Cobb mope too much.”

“I won’t.”

Ariadne didn’t let go of him for almost a minute, then sighed and pulled away. 

“I’ll be back soon,” Ariadne assured him, and Arthur smiled.

“I know. You couldn’t stay away, even if you wanted to.”

She nodded, and he watched her until she disappeared around the corner and out of sight, his jacket draped around her shoulders and her hands tucked into the pockets of her jeans.


End file.
